To the dear memory of
MY BROTHER IN LAW
SIR CRAVEN CHARLES GORING, BART.
WHOSE UNFAILING INTEREST IN MY WORK
HAS BEEN AN ENCOURAGEMENT THROUGH MANY YEARS
19 SUMNER PLACE, S.W.,
May 1897.

CONTENTS

PAGE

CHAPTER I

'WHAT A LOT OF BOYS!' 1

CHAPTER II

PAT AND PETS 16

CHAPTER III

GUESTS AT TEA 28

CHAPTER IV

WANTED A SISTER 44

CHAPTER V

BOB 58

CHAPTER VI

FERRETS AND FAIRIES 73

CHAPTER VII

NANCE'S STORY 89

CHAPTER VIII

NANCE'S STORY ( Continued ) 109

CHAPTER IX

MISS MOUSE 'AT HOME' 123

CHAPTER X

THE STORY OF THE LUCKY PENNY 140

CHAPTER XI

A GREAT SACRIFICE 157

CHAPTER XII

OUT ON THE MOOR 177

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACE PAGE

'OH, WHAT A LOT OF BOYS!' Frontispiece

'I'LL TAKE ONE HAND AND PAT ONE, AND THEN WE'LL ALL RUN DOWN
TOGETHER' 36

NANCE 97

'I'VE PLENTY OF STORIES IN MY HEAD,' SHE SAID 100

'ALL OF A SUDDEN HE STOOD STRAIGHT UP AND BEGAN THROWING
THINGS AT ME FOR ME TO CATCH IT WAS THE LITTLE SUNS!' 153

'BOB,' SHE SAID. HE PRETENDED NOT TO HEAR HER 171

AND WERE THOSE SNOW FLAKES AGAIN? 187

CHAPTER I

'WHAT A LOT OF BOYS!'

It was before the days of sailor suits and knickerbockers. Nowadays boys
would make great fun of the quaint little men in tight fitting jackets,
and trousers buttoning on above them, that many people still living can
remember well, for it is not so very long ago after all.

And whatever the difference in their clothes, the boys of then were in
themselves very like the boys of now queer, merry, thoughtless fellows
for the most part, living in the pleasant present, caring much less for
the past or the future than their girl companions, seldom taking trouble
of any kind to heart, or if they did, up again like a cork at the first
chance. But yet how dull the world, now as then, would be without them
and their bats and balls, and pockets full of rubbish, and everlasting
scrapes and mischief, and honest old hearts!

I always like to hear any one, young or old, man or woman or girl, say,
as one often does hear said, 'I do love boys.'

There were five of them of the Hervey boys. They began at thirteen and
ended at three, or began at three and ended at thirteen, if you like to
put it that way. But when they were all together in the nursery, or
playroom as they called it more often to see them, still more to hear
them, you would certainly have said there were at least ten above all
if a scrimmage of any kind was going on, for then the number of legs and
arms all belonging to everybody apparently, seemed to be multiplied in
an astonishing manner.

You would, I think, have sympathised with a small person, almost as
small as three years old Ger, whose first word's when the door was
opened were, in an awe struck whisper,